BALTIMORE - Heroin has ravaged this city since the early 1960s, fueling desperation and crime that remain endemic in many neighborhoods. But lately, despite heroin's long, deep history here, users say it has become nearly impossible to find. Heroin's presence is fading up and down the Eastern Seaboard, from New England mill towns to rural Appalachia, and in parts of the Midwest that were overwhelmed by it a few years back. It remains prevalent in many Western states, but even New York City, the nation's biggest distribution hub for the drug, has seen less of it this year. [continues 1518 words]
Maryland has banned food from its medical cannabis program but it still provides ways for patients to ingest the drug. Dave hadn't slept for more than three hours straight after a series of botched surgeries 18 years ago left him with chronic pain so intense it kept him awake at night. Relief was hard to come by -- until he made a tray of marijuana-infused brownies. Half of a small fudgy square was enough to put him to sleep for 14 hours. [continues 1469 words]
Teens who use e-cigarettes may be more likely to try marijuana in the future, especially if they start vaping at a younger age, a new study shows. More than 1 in 4 teenagers who reported e-cigarette use eventually progressed to smoking pot, according to the survey of more than 10,000 teens. That compared with just 8 percent of non-vapers, said lead researcher Hongying Dai, senior biostatistician with Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo. Further, teens who started vaping early had a greater risk of subsequent marijuana use. [continues 573 words]
The state medical examiner's office, which has been stretched by the opioid overdose epidemic, let some compliance issues slip in recent years, potentially costing the state extra money, according to a routine review by state auditors. The audit, spanning three and a half years and ending in September, found that the office didn't not follow required competitive bidding processes in purchasing some medical supplies, wasn't properly monitoring mileage charged by vendors to transport bodies and was not properly restricting employee access to the office's payment system. [continues 195 words]
In a lowlit room at Joy's Spa in Washington, Dawn Franklin is smoothing a creamy white mask onto Jessica Osorio's face. The mask, she says, is infused with chamomile and sage and aloe vera, plus one ingredient that she still has to explain to her clients: CBD. An aesthetician, Franklin started working with an Oregon chemist last year to make CBD products for the skin, believing that a little of it swiped onto the face could help repair the ravages of age. [continues 1142 words]
A bill in the Maryland General Assembly had sought to add more black firms to the state's regulated medical marijuana industry. Instead it might end up favoring existing players -- nearly all of whom are white-owned companies. A bill in the Maryland General Assembly had sought to add more black firms to the state's regulated medical marijuana industry. Instead it might end up favoring existing players -- nearly all of whom are white-owned companies. Given how much the Legislative Black Caucus has complained about the lack of minority-owned firms among Maryland's medical marijuana growers and processors, it may seem crazy that the legislation designed to address the issue that just passed overwhelmingly in the House could lead to more white men getting licenses. [continues 929 words]
No medical marijuana dispensaries have come to Harford County yet, but two companies have applied for county government approval to open their respective businesses in Joppa and Street, plus a dispensary has already opened just across the Susquehanna River in Perryville. Dispensaries must have a state license before they open and two dispensaries are allowed in each of Maryland's 47 state Senate districts. "Certainly any business that comes to Harford County has to meet all of our local requirements, and these businesses will be held to that standard, as any other," county government spokesperson Cindy Mumby said in a recent interview. [continues 1232 words]
Pot is hot for Maryland lawmakers in Annapolis this year. The General Assembly is considering more than two dozen bills on marijuana -- or cannabis, as the substance is called when used as a medicine. For marijuana enthusiasts, full legalization for recreational purposes is at the top of the wish list. Bills in both the House and the Senate would put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot to let voters decide whether to replace prohibition with a system of regulated sales and taxation. [continues 767 words]
There isn't a better reader of the tea lives in Annapolis than Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller. He's been saying for a couple of years now that legalization of recreational marijuana in Maryland -- something that seemed like a far-out idea when former Del. Heather Mizeur made it a central plank of her 2014 gubernatorial campaign -- is inevitable. We're inclined to believe him. Public attitudes on the drug have shifted rapidly in recent years, and it is now legal for recreational use in nine states and (sort of) Washington, D.C. The most recent polls on the issue report that about 60 percent of Maryland voters support legalization. At least four of the seven Democrats running to unseat Gov. Larry Hogan have voiced support for some form of it. But legalization still may not happen as fast as proponents might like. [continues 713 words]
Would Baltimore be better off if we called off the war on drugs? Yes. There would almost certainly be less violence here. The downside: Barring a sudden and significant change in the city's economic base that could lead to more jobs for men who have been involved in the illegal narcotics trade, we would still have too many neighborhoods with open-air drug markets. But first things first. Let's deal with the violence. The violence remains Baltimore's most immediate and pressing problem; we are internationally known for it. [continues 813 words]
One target drove a Mercedes and lived in a waterfront condo on Boston Street; another was homeless, essentially living out of a storage unit where he kept his money balled up in a sock. One lived with his extended family in a house he bought with a lead poisoning settlement; yet another had a half-million-dollar home on two acres of land in Westminster. The circumstances of the people who were targeted for robbery by the Baltimore Police's Gun Trace Task Force ranged widely, according to witnesses in the federal trial of two of its former members. The sums allegedly taken went from three figures up to six. [continues 1429 words]
The industrial hemp plant has a lot of boosters. They praise it for its hardiness and versatility. They say its oils yield food and medicine, its fibers produce clothing and plastic-like auto parts. They contend that when planted strategically, it can absorb manure and other pollutants before they flow into the Chesapeake Bay. So why is it contraband, they ask? Advocates for industrial hemp hope this is the year they can overcome the hemp plant's association with marijuana and win passage of a bill that would make it legal to grow and process in Maryland. At a forum Friday in Annapolis, they expressed confidence this will be the year state lawmakers join a growing national movement to distinguish hemp's industrial version from the plant beloved by millions of potheads. [continues 821 words]
Inside Maryland
